"cant remember his name but his face rings a bell"
06 August 2017 | currently in the gulf islands on the shakedown cruise
harry
well the shake down cruise had an inauspicious beginning. i left the dock on a saturday afternoon with the fireworks for the bathtub races looming. my boat still upside down there was not a chance of sailing. i figured id just anchour out in mark bay and watch the fireworks and celebrate actually getting off the dock. the preparations were basically done. the shakedown has begun. scrambling as i was i had broken some of my own cardinal rules. i didnt have a lifejacket on, i was still wearing flipflops, but i was frantic to get going. there was a perfect spot for viewing fireworks at the very front of the anchourage. nanaimo has an aerodrome boundary and one must anchour inside the boundary.
as i was gliding backwards i kicked the transmission out of reverse and went to jump out of the cockpit and go forward to anchour. my flipflop hooked the genoa sheet on the winch and i was immediately thrown forward at an accelerating pace. the speed of the tipping precluded any chance that my hand would find the rail, the very same stainless steel rail lifeline that i had just had welded on. however, my face did find the rail, then my chest found the rail as my neck was snapped violently back. i found myself laying face down on the deck with the classic tweet tweet tweeting of birds in my periphery. all i could think of was “ my boat is drifting backwards toward a lee shore ” …” not good “ i forced myself to get up and move to the anchour. dropped the anchour just inside the boundary and then went and sat in the cockpit. after the hook was set i found a few minutes to evaluate the experience. wow. that was fun…still reeling.
well the fireworks were great and the party was wonderful. had some friends come out and i anchoured in the bay for 3 days. day 2 the wind shifted to the nw and my boat swung around and shala was sitting outside the anchourage by several tens of feet. the harbour patrol came by 3-4 times and had a look and never said anything until the 3rd day and then they came by and told me, at happy hour , that i had to move. so there i was kicked out of my own anchourage that i had been using for years. i pulled up my anchour and chose to move to twin beaches on gabriola island.
it was a very rolly night and an early start as i could not sleep at all. i pulled up the hook and headed out at about 630 am. it wasnt five minutes and the engine died. wow this is a great shake down im thinking. what could it be. then it hit me. i have been running on the port fuel tank for far too long and it was out of fuel. i switched tanks but, the engine having been starved of fuel, required a bleeding of the injectors. i set the mainsail and turned on the autopilot and set about bleeding. between a regular lookout and the bleeding process it took about 20 minutes to get the engine running. off to silva bay for full tanks and then motored to false creek to exactly determine fuel burn as i have never done this with accuracy. turns out i have actually found some useful information besides knowing that my face is not as strong as steel. anyway the shake down has begun.
i think i will tell more tales of lessons i have learned the hard way. i have learned many and i am very fortunate to be able to tell you about them in hopes that you will not do the same things. this will be a story of learning to sail and learning to take care of a vessel. please leave a comment and let me know what you want to see and i will update info as necessary.